I viewed this and had the kind of emotional reaction I had when I watched the first shuttle take off in '81 and perform it's post launch "roll over" maneuver....and again when I got to be an eyewitness standing just downrange of the launch of the shuttle mission that carried the Hubble telescope into space.
Where have we gone? How do we get back? I think the journey back will include technological "miracles", like the one linked here:
This short video demonstrates a "product" developed by Boston Dynamics and DARPA. It weighs 235 lbs. and can carry a 340 lbs. payload:
(Please watch the whole thing....)
If we have this kind of capability, why do we suffer an $800 billion annual trade deficit? Why are we transferring food crops to transportaion fuel, when we surely are capable of innovation to solve rising energy price trends, without simply making one product more available, at the expense of another...our food supply?
Why did we just suffer through the impact of the decisions of eight years of Bush and Cheney?
Why are all three presidential contenders, so compromised and uninspiring?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigDog